Monique Cousineau
Light in the Garden at the Atlanta Botanical Garden is British artist Bruce Munro’s sixth solo US exhibition. All summer long visitors can wander the paths throughout one of America’s most famous gardens to experience six immersive large-scale light-based installations created from hundreds of miles of optic fiber.
Bruce Munro sees light for the emotional qualities it can bring. He uses light to express feelings and ideas.
“At dusk, the Garden becomes this enchanting landscape that visitors just have to see to believe.” says Garden President & CEO Mary Pat Matheson.
Munro has brilliantly re-imagined four of his most famous installations and wisely adapted them to highlight the unique environment of the Botanical Garden in Atlanta.
Forest of Light
Photo © Atlanta Botanical Garden
Invigorated by the surroundings in the Storza Woods, the artist has masterfully recreated the Forest of Light, from one of his iconic works, Field of Light. It is the largest, most ambitious and perhaps most captivating installation featuring 30,000 flower-like stems made of glass spheres and lit from within.
Water Towers
Photo © Atlanta Botanical Garden
With the picturesque skyline of the city of Atlanta as the backdrop, Water-Towers bring a colorful touch to the garden. The 69 towers measuring about two meters tall are made from over 200 stacked water bottles and illuminated by optic fibers. The interactive towers change color in response to the music that emerges from them.
Beacon
Photo © Atlanta Botanical Garden
Beacon is built upon the superstructure of a geodesic dome. The first purpose of these domes, made by an independent manufacturer in England, was to use them as garden green houses. However, Munro has put his own artistic spin on the igloo-like shape to create a dynamic multicolored cupola.
The Water Towers and Beacon installations incorporate 7,050 recyclable water bottles.
Eden Blooms
Photos © Atlanta Botanical Garden
They might seem like futuristic flowers you would find in a SciFi series but for the Eden Blooms installation, the artist imagined exotic illuminated blooms emerging from the garden. This mixed media piece is made of optical fiber, steel, acrylic, sintered nylon and light.
As a North American premier, two pieces are shown for the first time in the US.
Swing Low suspended over the Fern Dell Fountain is a piece created with giant spheres encased in acrylic that are threaded with optical fiber and repeated to give the impression of a massive swinging pendulum.
Swing Low
Photo © Atlanta Botanical Garden
Three Degrees, is the focal point in the Fuqua Orchid Centre. “In this installation, Munro is influenced by the movement of curvaceous feminine forms, R&B and light spangling in to space. The essence of a performance is captured in the energetic, uplifting structural forms.”
Three Degrees
Photo © Atlanta Botanical Garden
For a little taste of what the exhibition feels like live, here is a short video of Bruce Munro’s Light in the Garden.
Bruce Munro’s six piece collection of Light in the Garden can be seen through October 3rd at the Atlanta Botanical Garden in Atlanta Georgia.
Connecting more than just land: Bridges around the world that inspire us
Connecting more than just land: Bridges around the world that inspire us A bridge is the physical link between land, cities, states, countries, and, in the case of the Bosphorus Bridge, even…
Urban Lighting in Public Spaces
Urban Lighting in Public Spaces A guest post by Sophie Valla Lighting design can transform the perception of any space. It can render a three-dimensional sculpture…
Can we print light?
Can we print light? 3D printing is the buzzword on every self-respecting tech fan's lips at the moment. It's even possible to print houses now. But what do printing innovations mean for light? And is…
Light for Public Space: A Framework for People's Engagement with Light
Light for Public Space: A Framework for People's Engagement with Light Lighting has the power to engage citizens and create meaningful and lasting connections between them and their cities....
Interview with Koen De Winter
Koen de Winter, jury member for the CLUE lighting design competition, talks to us about his career, his advice for other designers, and finding new inspiration.
One for light, light for all
The CLUE competition, an annual celebration of the best in lighting, launches its third edition under the theme One for Light, Light for All.
Taking a circular lighting approach
As industries move away from “take, make, waste” production to a circular economy, circular lighting is the approach translated to Philips Lighting.
Light Forest and Lightfall: new ways to experience light
Dynamic, experiential, interactive, immersive… these are all words used to describe two new innovative light installations at the Kazerne, a gallery and creative hub located in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
Atlectico Madrid takes lighting to the next level
A stadium that beckons fans from a distance, pulling them forward with the power of their team’s colors illuminating the façade. The roar of the dedicated supporters is intensified by dynamic lighting all around, pulsing with the music and tuned specifically to the event at hand.
